The Engagement Effect
by Laania
Summary: The engagement ring wasn't meant for Penny but, for Alex? Leonard and Alex are getting married and the group is in turmoil over their friends' love lives. Can the group of scientists and one engineer change back what once was normal, how everything should be? Or has Leonard finally found the one woman he can spend the rest of his life with?
1. Chapter One

**Author's Note: What is up, my fellow BBT nerds? So, here's my take on what should happen because, let's face it, Leonard and Penny are old news (to me; if you feel different, oh well, they're a great couple) and I felt as if Leonard needed someone who could really fall in love with someone special: Alex Jensen is her name and don't wear it out! I'll hopefully be posting a chapter a week because I've already written a few chapters because I could not get this idea out of my head. I love Leonard and Alex together and I think they'd make an awesome couple. READ AND REVIEW!**

**Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah... I don't own The Big Bang Theory... Blah, blah, blah...**

The look between the two silenced the whole living room and all that sat and stood inside. Her eyes widened at the small square velvet box in her shaking hands; her knees shook with such a force that she had never felt before.

His eyes were cast down to his twiddling thumbs, looking everywhere else but her blue eyes that somehow seemed to rock his whole entire world for six years. He wasn't in his normal everyday wear: a zip-up hoodie with his army green jacket on top, a dorky t-shirt underneath showing off his love of the technology of a future space program or his blue jeans that never seemed to get dirty.

Tonight though, as they all ate their carry-out Thai food, he was dressed in a dark gray pair of slacks that his ex-girlfriend Priya had bought him. He wore a light blue dress shirt that tucked in nicely around his boyish frame and he wore a lighter shade of gray vest that Priya had bought for him also. He didn't dress up like this for any kind of occasion, only for occasions where he knew that maybe, this time, that one girl would look at him with a gleam in her eye that would send her right into his arms.

The girl that stood in front of him, Penny, in her dark pair of skinny jeans and a yellow top that accentuated her thin yet curvy figure, couldn't shake the idea of what lay inside that small velvet box in her hands. She had found it in the boys' room when she had been looking for a lost earring a week before while having a wild night that she never thought would happen again.

The audience of seven sat and stood before them as if watching a soap opera unravel, none were taking in the amount of pain and nervousness that the 'soap opera stars' were feeling.

"H-how..." Penny started off, her head slightly shaking at the small box in her hands, her blue eyes never leaving sight of it, although Leonard had felt her stare on him the entire time she held it in her hands.

"I-I... I don't know what to say..." Leonard replied back, his eyes still cast down to the light wood-paneled flooring of his apartment.

"Well, at least he admits it. Now, if only he'd admit it about his work." Sheldon whispered into Amy's ear, thinking he had made a remarkably funny joke. It was when Amy gently slapped his shoulder that he knew that maybe, this time, it wasn't the time to say anything and watch the scene before him unfold.

"I told you that I didn't want to get married! How could you do this to me?!" Penny exclaimed, looking into the dark brown eyes of the man she had broken up with not even two weeks ago.

"Penny, I-"

"No! Don't give me some lame excuse, Leonard! How could you not talk with me about this? You can't just spring this up on me! I-"

"It's not for you." Leonard shut Penny up with the quietest sentence he had ever spoken before in his entire life.

It's not for you. Four words that had just crushed Penny's argument about Leonard pseudo-proposal. The audience of seven were shocked and looked between Leonard and Penny with an angst to see which would speak next.

Raj looked over at Howard who made eye contact with him on the spot. It wasn't a quick glance but, just a subtle one to know that their friend was in desperate trouble. Raj's deep brown eyes slowly made their way to look over at Bernadette who had been looking intently at her best friend Penny; never once looking away though Raj's eyes looked to her to figure out if he should say something or not. Without a drink in sight, he couldn't say a word and looked down at the blue rug underneath the couch sadly.

Stuart sat in Sheldon's desk chair and awkwardly shifted around the chicken pad thai that he held onto, looking away at the group of friends he had come to love.

"W-What...?" Was all Penny had to sputter out before Leonard rubbed his hand through his hair and looked over at his roommate, Sheldon, who, in a twist, gave Leonard a look of understanding and decided to stand up.

"Penny, I believe what Leonard is trying to say is, that item you currently hold in your hand, was not meant for you." Sheldon gave Penny a look as if he somehow dumbed down his intelligence so that her community college drop out mind could understand.

"I got that, Sheldon, thanks." Penny said back in a sarcastic and snappy way, her eyes deathly staring him down.

Sheldon sat back down in his spot next to Amy, his hand placed ever-so gently in his lap.

"Leonard, if this isn't for me, who is it for, huh?" Penny started in a uproarious manner, rolling her eyes and throwing her arms out, the velvet box in her right hand.

Leonard looked around the group of friends and it settled on Alex before he looked away and now, at Penny, matching her glare.

"It's for Alex."

A stunned silence filled the room. Everyone who sat down was thankful they hadn't been standing or else their knees would've given out from the shock of what Leonard just announced.

And then, all eyes turned to Alex who sat in Leonard's desk chair, next to Raj. Her long bright and natural brown hair gently fell over her white knit sweater and her bright blue eyes sparked when she looked over everyone who had their own set of eyes on her, waiting for her to say, or even do something.

"Me?" She asked rhetorically, knowing full well that, yes, Leonard had just told the entire room that that ring, in that velvet box, was meant solely for her.

Leonard nodded and scratched at his brow, his eyes casting downwards again before he moved closer to a stunned Penny, who only blinked and said not a word.

"May I have that back now?" Leonard asked softly, his hand outstretched so that Penny could hand him back that box and ring he spent over two hours purchasing.

Penny's shoulders fell a little, her breath caught in her throat before she looked down to the black velvet box in her hand. It felt like someone was controlling her and she watched as her arm brought itself up and dropped the box into Leonard's waiting hand.

It was then that Penny gained control of herself, spun around and ran out of the apartment, slamming the front door as she ran across the hall.

Sheldon sighed and looked at Amy before she nodded and touched Bernadette's hand. The two doctors stood up and quietly left the room, a much less dramatic exit than their friend had previously done before.

Stuart awkwardly swallowed his pad thai and stood up, taking his lid and headed for the door. "Well, this has been great and I hope we can do it again." He casually said as he slid out the front door and closed it behind him, his footsteps receding down the stairwell.

Howard and Raj stood up and walked towards Leonard who only waved them off, his own way of telling them that he was okay. The two friends looked between each other and then to Sheldon. Howard mouthed the words 'comic book store, now' at Sheldon and the brilliant scientist jumped right up, ran to the closet behind the couch, grabbed his beige windbreaker and trotted out the door with Howard and Raj.

Now, the only people left in the large living room of apartment 4A which was housed in the apartment building at 2311 Los Robles street which sat directly in the center of Pasadena, California, were Leonard and Alex and the two locked eyes on each other as soon as everyone had officially left.

Leonard stood nervously next to the round glass coffee table and ran another hand through his hair before looking at the black velvet box in his hand.

"I-I... I wanted to give this to you when the time was right." Leonard started, his eyes leaving Alex's and now at the box. "I guess now is as good a time as any." He chuckled, walking over to Alex who immediately jumped out of the brown rolling office chair.

"Leonard-"

"Wait, Alex, before you start, I just want to say something: I know we haven't been dating each other that long and it's... it's okay if you say no! Ha ha, I have a thirty day warranty on it." Leonard joked horribly, rubbing the back of his head as Alex held her hands together at the base of her neck.

"Are you done?" She asked, trying to look into Leonard's eyes as he tried keeping his glance away from hers.

"No, no, not yet. If you say no, which you probably are, it's not the first time I've been rejected," his mind immediately went to Penny the night before Howard and Bernadette were to be married. "I'm okay with it." He nodded and reassured himself, not caring if the reassurance was mutual.

"Leonard?" Alex gently touched Leonard's cheek to force him to look into her smoldering blue eyes, the blue eyes that had captivated him for so long.

"Yeah?"

"Yes." Alex smiled before she ran into him and through her arms around his neck, loving the way her small frame melded into his and how the warmth of his body radiated off of him and warmed her.

Alex had been dreaming of this day for so long; imagining it whenever she was working on Sheldon's nonsense paperwork. Alex pulled back from Leonard and for the first time, in either of their lives, they found someone that they could say 'I love you' to and not be thrown under the bus or be ridiculed for it.

* * *

**A/N: Did you like it? Review and let me know!  
****-Laania**


	2. Chapter Two

**Author's Note: I wanted to update as soon as possible because, well, I just can't wait to post another chapter! I hope you enjoy and I hope to see some great reviews come in; whether good or bad, I want to know what I can do to make this much more exciting! Thanks guys! I want to thank 5Mississippis, Jislan35, Shadowsa and ForsetiPurge for reviewing! Thank you for all of your kind words!**

**Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah... I don't own The Big Bang Theory... Blah, blah, blah...**

Alex walked down one of the many corridors of CalTech University towards Dr. Sheldon Cooper's office with a huge stack of work books in her hands. She made it to the door but stopped outside to hear some yelling from her employer who must be on the phone with someone.

She situated the work books in her hands so that she could open the door and walked in on Dr. Cooper with his work phone plastered to his ear and his hand waving at Alex to put the work books on the file cabinet in the corner of his office.

"Yes, yes, I understand. No, no, _you_ don't seem to understand the importance of this ordeal!" Dr. Cooper exclaimed into the phone, his eyes rolling as he listened to the person on the other end of the line spiel about something he really didn't care to talk about.

Alex stood patiently with her hands clasped together and waited for her employer to get off of the phone to prepare for her next time when her phone buzzed in her back pocket. She pulled it out and smiled as she read 'Leonard 3' and a cute little message about how he loved waking up next to her this morning.

Alex quickly typed back a message as Dr. Cooper started yelling into the phone.

"It is not just a _game_, as you put it! It was a way of life and I do not appreciate the way you put World of Warcraft down!" Sheldon's hand slammed the desk and he stood then, dropped back into his chair quickly and cast his eyes downward.

"I apologize, mother. I didn't mean to offend you." He calmly replied and the sound of his mother on the other end of the line sounded like a muffled siren going off. "Yes, Mommy. Alright. Good-bye." Sheldon quickly hung up his phone and sighed.

He looked over to Alex who only looked right back at him. "What?"

Alex was slightly taken aback and walked forward to his desk. "Do you want me to do anything else? I still have another forty-five minutes before I head on home."

Sheldon sat there and looked down at his organized desk and looked over the things that didn't seem all that important. After a few moments, he looked up at Alex and gave her a slight nod. "You may leave," he said, watching as she smiled and turned for the door.

"Ah! But first," Sheldon stood up and walked around his desk so that he stood taller than Alex and was able to look down at her. "I need your advice."

Alex looked at Sheldon and nodded, feeling another buzz in her back pocket, most likely from her new fiancee, Leonard.

"Which colours do you like best? I was sifting through this god-awful wedding magazines and I can't seem to find the right colours for your wedding." Sheldon walked right back to his desk and opened a drawer, pulling out three thick wedding magazines.

Alex laughed out loud and then quickly tried to hide it when Sheldon gave her _that_ look. "Oh, um, well, Dr. Cooper, Leonard and I have only been engaged for a week. I think it's a little too early to begin to think of a colour combination."

"Too early? Oh, dear Alex, you seem to misunderstand. See, this is for Leonard and I'm sure he wants a very strict theme on his wedding." Sheldon sat on the edge of his desk as he unknowingly began to condescend Alex.

"And what would that be?" Alex asked, her left eyebrow instinctively going up.

"Star Trek, of course." Sheldon said with conviction, watching as Alex began to laugh and walk out of the office, her bright and true laughter carrying through-out the office and out into the hall. "I wonder what was so funny."

…

"I missed you today." Alex smiled as Leonard held her from around her waist, looking at the beautiful woman who stood before him.

"I missed you, too. Here, I got a surprise for you." Leonard jumped out of their hold and walked over to the island of his kitchen, his hands moving something around before he looked over the counter and at Alex who stood in the middle of the living room.

"Alright, now, close your eyes." Leonard said as Alex smiled and did as she was told.

Leonard quietly walked over to her and held the brightly wrapped package behind his back. He quickly took a deep breath in and held it out, watching Alex as she slowly opened her eyes and looked right at the gift he had bought her.

"Oh! May I open it?" Alex said as she grabbed the package and Leonard nodded, walking over to the cream-coloured chair he loved so much.

Alex smiled and sat down on the middle cushion on the couch, remembering full well the extent of importance the corner seat next to the lamp and table meant to a very picky doctor. Alex began to tear at the edges of a package, looking at the plain cardboard box now sitting on her lap.

…

"Penny?" Bernadette's high-pitched voice was one of caring as she opened Penny's apartment door and saw the inside of it completely darkened. No lights were on, no clothes strewn across her teal IKEA couch, nothing was inside of Penny's apartment that could even remotely begin to tell that she was there.

Except for the loud hiccup in the back bedroom.

"Come on, Amy. I think she's in here." Bernadette walked inside the small apartment and placed the three grocery bags down on the, for once, clean blue couch.

Amy walked in and closed the door behind her, her eyes catching a small glimpse of the apartment door 4A across the hall, her boyfriend most likely inside.

"Penny!" Bernadette shouted, knocking Amy out of her inquisitive nature and sending her running into the bedroom where the small blonde's scream came from.

Amy ran into the bedroom and saw the unconscious Penny on the floor with a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps, the same drink that she had used to try and have sex with Leonard.

"Penny! Oh, god, what do we do?" Bernadette cried out, cradling Penny's head in her lap.

"Don't worry! I know CPR and I've been waiting a long time to use it!" Amy shouted with enthusiasm. The dorky brunette dropped to her knees and immediately went to Penny's mouth, screwing away the proper CPR procedures.

Penny's eyes shot open and her arms began to flail around. "Oh, god! I'm awake, Amy! Stop that!" Penny shouted out, trying her hardest to push the woman off of her.

"No, no, I still don't think it's working! One more try!" Amy shouted again, trying to push Penny back down so that she could place her lips on hers once more.

"Amy! She's awake!" Bernadette said as she stood up and pulled Amy off of Penny, watching as the tall blonde cough and plead with herself not to gag. "Penny, what happened? Why were you on the floor?"

Penny looked around her bedroom right quick and began to realize she had dropped to the ground after cleaning her apartment. She didn't know why she had started cleaning but, she had done it. Penny looked to her right and saw the empty bottle of Peppermint Schnapps next to her hand. Okay, now she realized why she cleaned her apartment.

"I, uh, fell off the bed." Penny lied as she grabbed the bottle and tried to toss it behind the other side of her bed.

"With an alcoholic beverage that is mostly used to take away one's pains and emotions about a certain event? Or to induce serotonin and dopamine into your brain to try and be happy even though your ex boyfriend is now engaged to that-"

Bernadette held her hand up towards Amy's mouth for her to stop right where she was. "Penny, come on. How about you come stay with me and Howard for a few days, take your mind off of things?"

Penny shook her head and stood up, the two doctors also standing up along with her. Penny walked by them and out into the living room; the spotless room was actually quite nice yet, she knew in a week's time it would be back to normal.

"How could Leonard do that to me?" Penny walked and sat down in her green swivel chair and pulled her knees close to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, breathing in deeply and watched as Amy and Bernadette sat on the teal IKEA couch, taking in everything about the apartment.

"Penny, you had been broken up for a couple of weeks. You had to have known he was acting different." Bernadette said as she reached over and rubbed Penny's arm, comforting the young woman with so many opportunities ahead of her.

"It's unusually clean in here. Did you clean your apartment?" Amy broke in.

Bernadette rolled her eyes and sighed, dropping her hand from comforting Penny. Penny looked around and nodded, not wanting to tell them the real reason why she had cleaned the apartment.

"Yeah, I thought, why not? Guess it does look nicer." Penny said stoically as she looked to the top of her refrigerator and saw an unopened bottle of white wine. She must've missed looking there last night.

"Penny, I couldn't even imagine what you're going through. If Howard had done something like that to me, I don't know what I would have done." Bernadette said gently, wishing her friend would pick herself up and realize that Leonard was a worthless bastard.

"Another quick question: you found the ring, correct? How long did you have it for before you finally... blew up, I should say, the other week?" Amy received a nasty glare from Bernadette but, even Bernadette had been wondering the same thing.

How did Penny find the ring and why didn't she just put it back and wait for Leonard to make the announcement? Why did she decide to cause such a scene?

"You remember when Leonard and I broke up?" Penny asked the women and both nodded, remembering Penny calling them cheering that she had finally done it and that she was on her way onto greater things.

"I went back to him the next night and we sorta, hooked back up." Penny looked at the two women scowling at her. "But, only for the night! I just wanted to see if I did the right thing!" Penny sighed and relaxed into the chair, her eyes returning to the white wine on top of the refrigerator.

"He went to the bathroom and I went to his sock drawer to find some underwear I had left over there. That's when I found it; it was just sitting there and I opened it and saw this _gorgeous_ ring with this _huge_ diamond and smaller little diamonds circling it. I was so scared and I put it in my pants pocket and I just left.

"I didn't care if he was still in the bathroom or that I had taken the ring I thought he was gonna give me. I'm so stupid; how could I have not seen that he was in love with her?" Penny cried into her hands and the room was silent except for the twenty-eight year old's sobs.

Bernadette looked to Amy and silently begged her to say something because, for the first time, the small and petite blonde had nothing to say, not because she didn't want to cheer her friend up but because she didn't know how to make her feel better.

Amy nodded and stood up, walking over to the refrigerator and grabbing the white wine she had been watching Penny eye the whole time they were talking. Amy grabbed the corkscrew from the drawer next to the sink and twisted the metal screw into the cork, pulling it up and pouring the alcoholic drink into a clean wine glass.

The neurobiologist walked over to Penny and handed her the glass, watching as her 'bestie' looked up from her crying and brightened in a sad way from the sight of the wine. Penny grabbed the glass and with one swoop, drank the whole contents of the glass.

"Will you be okay if we leave, Penny? We're going to go get some take out and come right back here." Bernadette asked as she began to stand and as Penny nodded and walked towards the wine bottle in response, the two doctors left apartment 4B and walked down the four flight of stairs to Bernadette's car.

…

"I'm glad you liked your gift." Leonard whispered softly into Alex's ear, watching as she held her arm in the air and the brilliant rainbow colours of the bracelet Leonard bought her.

To the average eye, the bracelet looked like a cheap piece you would buy at a junk shop for a quarter but, to the trained eye and the very scientific minds of Leonard and Alex, the bracelet held a very different meaning.

The bracelet was made out of niobium and in the light, it would pretend to become a different colour other than silver and would shine reds, blues, yellows, greens and even purple in the right light. On the top center of the bracelet, a small black rock with silver accents was situated. Like another average Joe, the rock would've been one they could call gravel or some type of wet-looking asphalt. But, Leonard knew that wet asphalt wasn't in style and so, a small piece of meteorite mounted the niobium bracelet. The meteorite sparkled with silver and reflected all of the mysteries of the universe.

"I love it, Leonard." Alex smiled greatly at the gift, Leonard pulling her warm and naked body closer to his as they lay in his bed and stared at the gorgeous bracelet still hanging on her wrist that she kept suspended in the air.

"Do you know why I bought this?" Leonard asked, his free hand reaching for the bracelet and letting his fingers gently rub the polished metal.

"Yeah." Alex replied, looking up at Leonard who kept his eyes on the bracelet above the both of them.

"Well, we just got a huge grant yesterday at work-"

"The Weezly Grant?" Alex asked, her bright blue eyes fixated on Leonard's beautiful and slightly crooked smile.

"Yeah. Well, the stipulations for the grant was laser technology with niobium-conduced lasers in taking out potentially life-threatening meteors headed for Earth." Leonard chuckled a little and Alex stayed quiet, her brows rising a bit as she kept her stare on Leonard.

"So... you bought me a bracelet out of the element you're going to use to destroy a meteor?" Alex asked, not really connecting the dots.

"Yeah! I thought that every time I was at work, you'd look down and see that I'm the niobium, working hard to destroy anything that can come close to hurting you. The meteorite piece, that's the part that got to you but, I'm always there to hold you together.

"See? It's a metaphor: this little meteorite made it to Earth, survived absolutely everything in space to get here onto your bracelet and meet you. It can be both good and bad." Leonard gave her one of his goofy smiles and Alex smiled meekly at him.

"Do you get it?"

Alex looked up to her bracelet and then back at Leonard. "No but, I'm sure I will eventually." She grabbed his face and pulled him in for a kiss, once again resuming what they were meant to do in the dark of the night.

* * *

**A/N: Leonard is such a dork and I wanted him to have that dorky and romantic kind of feel for everything. What will the next chapter hold? Who knows! Review and tell me how you** **feel!**  
**-Laania**


	3. Chapter Three

**Author's Note: Okay, I lied, it was more than a week, lol. Well, here it is! I'll end my little spiel quickly!**

**Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah... I don't own The Big Bang Theory... Blah, blah, blah...**

**Chapter Three**

Bernadette and Amy proceeded to walk up the four flights of stairs with five bottles of cheap chardonnay wine which only came out to fifty dollars, dinner portions of sesame chicken, sweet and sour pork and broccoli and beef all from Ming's Chinese Cuisine and a bag of movies from Bernadette's apartment.

They both carried overnight bags with them stuffed with a few pairs of clothes and their laptops and tablets, hoping to not use them unless it was to play a game with everyone. Both of the women walked in sync with each other, their minds on the devastated Penny.

"You know the only plausible reason that apartment is clean is because she was looking for that Schnapps bottle, right?" Amy looked over at Bernadette and the petite woman nodded with regret.

"Yeah, I think staying the night with her tonight is the best option. I don't want her to do anything stupid."

Amy nodded in agreement and adjusted the bags in her hand as they began to climb the last flight of stairs.

A muffled voice came from the next floor up. Another muffled and higher pitched voice sounded right after and then, the footsteps began to come down the stairs.

The two doctors ran right into the other female doctor who was making their best friends life a living Hell.

"Oh, um, hi guys." Alex smiled sweetly at them and tried to find a way to get through them without knocking into them.

"Hello, Alex." Amy said with a dropped octave in her voice, making herself seem much more menacing.

Bernadette felt the need to do the same but, the small woman just raised her head a little higher even though Alex was three steps up in front of them.

"So, what are your plans for tonight?" The nervous brunette asked as she looked between the two women, their eyes piercing through her cool exterior.

"Oh, just a few things: eat, drink, plan to take care of our distraught friend. You know, the works." Bernadette said, her right brow popping up as she tried pulling her most threatening face.

And you know what? It was working. Alex was slightly terrified of the two women she had respected when she was first asked to hang out with the group. Though they never invited her to hang out with them whenever they went out to a bar or the lounge, Penny, Amy and Bernadette still greeted her and talked with her like she had.

Amy's eyes suddenly dropped to the ring precariously placed on Alex's thin finger, the stunning glow of the white gold glowed even in the dim light of the stairwell. The large diamond with the circle of smaller diamonds wrapped around it was just as Penny said: gorgeous.

Amy had to stop herself from asking how Leonard was. She cleared her throat and began to walk up the stairs, her head held high as she walked by Alex without even saying 'good-bye'.

"Well, have a good night tonight." Alex mumbled as she walked by Bernadette and proceeded to walk down the four flights of stairs to her waiting car.

Bernadette didn't know why but, she felt bad for the doctoral candidate. The young woman had absolutely no idea how bad Penny was feeling and she couldn't have known! When Penny had confronted Leonard about the ring a week ago, Alex's face was just as shocked as everyone else's. Had she not known?

Bernadette shook her head and bounded up the rest of the stairs and into the apartment of her best friend, alcohol and cheap Chinese food in tow.

…

Rajesh Koothrappali was a man of many words... either on paper, around his guy friends or when his blood had an alcohol content of .08 or higher. He dreamed of marrying the right girl, starting a family and one day watching his own children fall in love and go through the torturous trials of a young adult in love.

Yet, Raj, thirty-one years old with no wife, no child here or on the way, sat at the Cheesecake Factory bar with a grasshopper in hand and his true best friend, Howard, sitting next to him.

"I thought Alex really liked me." Raj slurred out, his eyelids drooping down as he took another swig of the green milky drink.

"I just can't believe it, in general. Leonard is marrying someone other than Penny." Howard took a long sip from the Bud Light bottle in front of him. He started chuckling and looked at Raj. "I mean, if the next person to get married from our group it would be those two! Together! Not... Alex and Leonard. That just... it doesn't seem right."

"I know, dude," Raj agreed, taking another sip of the cocktail. "I claimed her first and Leonard totally took her."

Howard raised an eyebrow at Raj, who only looked at Howard with an innocent look. "So, calling 'dibs' on someone you can't even _talk_ to will stop others from going after her?"

"Of course! In my country-"

"In your country, they worship beef and have Malaria as the 'common cold'." Howard smiled at Raj as his best friend shook his head and took another sip of the Grasshopper.

"Hey guys, what's up?" A voice called from behind the two men, Howard and Raj turning around to see Stuart with a bigger woman walking at his side.

"H-hey, Stuart, who, uh, who's your lady friend?" Howard smiled awkwardly at the comic store owner.

"Oh, this is, um, Kerry. She, uh, we had met at Comic Con a few years back." Stuart rubbed the back of his head as he looked at Kerry from the corner of his eye. "Oh, Kerry, this is Howard and Raj."

Kerry gave a slight wave before she looked at Stuart and began pulling on his sleeve for them to be alone.

"Well, hey, we're gonna go eat but, the new issue of Catwoman of the 52 is out. I think they only have twelve comics left before they discontinue her." Stuart waved good-bye to the pair of best friends.

"What?! They are canceling Catwoman?!" Raj freaked out, his eyes grew wider and he grabbed his cocktail and chugged the rest before placing the martini glass down and grabbing Howard's arm. "Come on!"

"W-what, wait!" Howard called out, taking out his wallet and paying the bar keep and running out with his best bud.

…

Raj held the comic book close to his chest; the sweet smell of new plastic giving new life into him, even if it was just for a short time. He had liked Alex more than anyone knew but, just like anyone who knew him, he couldn't talk to her.

He knew what he wanted to say and envisioned her laughing at his jokes, just mere inches away from his face with those bright blue eyes looking at him with both lust and love. He dreamed every night the way his hands would hold her waist against his body if it meant dancing, standing out in the rain or in his apartment just finishing dinner.

He couldn't tell Howard this, he couldn't tell anyone this! Especially any female who wasn't related to him and that's when Raj joined reality to listen to Howard talking on the phone with Bernadette.

"Everything okay in paradise?" Raj asked as he placed the newest Catwoman issue in the store bag.

"Yeah, Bernie is staying over at Penny's for the night." Howard sighed and put the phone in his back pocket.

"How's Penny doing?" Raj asked, true concern in his voice over the woman he had a one-time fling with.

"I guess she's taking everything pretty hard. That's one person in my life I never thought I would see be so hurt." Howard said as he and Raj continued walking down the sidewalk towards 2311 Los Robles street, the apartment where they knew Leonard would be at.

Suddenly, Raj gasped and pulled Howard over to the side of the building as a thin woman with brown curly hair walked out from the apartment building with the iconic 2311 numbers painted in silver.

"What are you doing?!" Howard shouted, only to have his mouth covered by Raj's hand as they peeked around to corner to see Alex walking their way, her eyes ahead as she pulled her car keys out and the blue Honda Civic next to them chirped happily, thankful it's owner was about to drive it away.

"It's just Alex. Why are you freaking out so much?" Howard asked, pushing Raj off a bit to get some breathing room.

"Because I'm in love with her, dude! And I'm drunk! What if I do something to piss her off?" Raj asked with genuine concern.

"You're not going to do a single thing, 'scardy cat'." Howard watched as Alex walked to the driver's side of the car and he pressed himself against the wall, his breath held in his chest.

"What? What did you see?" Raj asked.

"The one person who could make this night unbearable."

"Sheldon." Raj said as his eyebrows lowered and pushed himself against the same wall as Howard.

Both of the men hid in the small alleyway next to the apartment building they were trying to get into but, a person who they have come to have absolutely no patience with was coming towards them from the same way Alex came out, a trash bag in his gloved hands.

The reason why they had lost all patience with this renowned scientist and didn't want to be in his company was for the fact that he had taken Leonard and Alex's side almost instantly after the whole incident a week ago. He began to plan Leonard's bachelor party that same night with only a few hours after Penny ran out of the apartment. And Leonard was actually okay with it, which was something Howard and Raj didn't really seem right.

They felt so bad for Penny but, they had seen the love deteriorate over the last few weeks her and Leonard had been together. Had Leonard been cheating on Penny with Alex? And if so, for how long? How long was Leonard seeing Alex on the side and for how long did he have that engagement ring?

"What are you doing here?" The same voice that belonged to the scientist they were trying to hide from.

"W-W-Well, um, we, uh..." Howard started off, looking behind him to find Raj in the same state of shock that he was in.

"Were you two spying on me?" Sheldon looked at the two shorter men, his eyebrows raised for an answer as he held his garbage bag in his gloved hand.

Raj and Howard looked between each other and in Raj's right hand, out of sight from Sheldon, he felt the Catwoman comic and immediately threw it up into Sheldon's face.

"The new Catwoman came out!" Raj yelled, hoping it would create enough cover for them.

"Interesting. May I?" Sheldon reached out for the comic while at the same time handing off the garbage bag to Raj and turning around as he pulled the new comic out of it's plastic and began to open for very first page.

"I don't think I ever said 'yes'." Raj said sadly, holding the garbage bag.

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**A/N: How did you like it? Or hated it? Review and let me know!**

**-Laania**


	4. Chapter Four

**Author's Note: It has been quite a while since I've updated. I am going through a lot of bull-honky right now that shouldn't even happen. That's right, I'm getting a divorce. Hold your applause, people; it had been a long time coming. Ten long months... Sigh, well, we have to live and learn and move on. So! Here ya'll go! Chapter Four! I love this chapter because I think we're all starting to see the affects of what the proposal is doing to the group. READ AND REVIEW! Love ya'll!  
****Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah... I don't own The Big Bang Theory... Blah, blah, blah...**

**Chapter Four**

Penny sat with her back against the right arm of the couch; a half-empty wine bottle in between her thighs and the untouched Chinese food sitting on her little coffee table next to her. Her green eyes had all been burnt out by the crying that had ensued for the last two hours and the alcohol – while a low percentage – was getting to her head, making the soothing buzz come quicker on her empty stomach.

Amy and Bernadette watched the young blonde that had once been so full of life now look as if she were wasting away into nothing, into something that she should have never become. Amy looked down at the rest of her fried rice and sweet and sour pork on her plate and sighed with horrible contentment.

Bernadette took another sip of her wine before standing up and walking to the front door.

"Bernadette, where are you going?" Amy asked. Even Penny had gained some sense of where she was and looked at the small young doctor before her eyes dulled again.

"I'm going to go give Leonard a piece of my mind." Bernadette opened the door and stormed out, letting the door slam behind her and shake the apartment walls.

Amy looked at Penny who continued sitting in her spot and looked at her Bestie with her lifeless green eyes. Amy nodded, placed her plate down on the coffee table and walked out, following Bernadette's loud and high pitched voice across the hall.

Amy gently closed the door whilst another door opened: apartment 4A.

"How dare you do this to Penny, you selfish bastard!" Bernadette shouted at the unsuspecting Leonard whose eyes went wide with shock. "Penny loved you with all of her heart and soul and you just up and left her life she were yesterday's leftovers!"

Amy walked to Bernadette's side, standing up for the small blonde as she continued her tirade.

"Leonard, what were you thinking?! Answer me!" Bernadette yelled again before watching Leonard look down at his shoes then back up at the two women standing at his door.

"Penny and I weren't meant to be together." Leonard's small and meek voice barely registered in Bernadette's and Amy's minds before he continued on. "I tried making it work with Penny but, if you love something so much, you have to let it go."

"You dumb ass! That didn't mean break up with your girlfriend then propose to another girl two weeks later!" Bernadette yelled, her face red with anger and her pink dress and red sweater wasn't making it look any lighter.

"Leonard, if I may ask-" Amy began before Bernadette took a step forward towards the experimental physicist and grabbed the front of his purple Batman shirt.

"I swear, Leonard, if I weren't married to your best friend and was six inches taller with a black belt from Karate school, I would beat your ass right now. But, I won't because I want you to go through the hurt and pain Penny is feeling right now in your mind, your guilty conscious." Bernadette let go of his shirt and walked back into Penny's apartment, slamming the door once more.

Amy looked away from apartment 4B and looked back at Leonard's blank face, that face with so many questions but, the voice without conviction to ask them with.

"Leonard, were you cheating on Penny with Alex?" Amy looked out at Leonard through her spot-covered glasses and watched as the physicist began to baffle and trip over his own tongue.

"I-... I-... D-d-do... What?" Leonard asked, his brain and the questions within it speeding about a thousand miles an hour within his gray matter and his heart pounding through his chest. He felt around his coat pocket for his inhaler, quickly finding it and pumping the sweet needed Albuteral went soaring into his lungs and began neutralizing the tightened organ.

"Leonard, did you cheat on Penny with Alex?" Amy asked again, letting the short man recuperate and get his barrings straight.

"Y-yes... I-I-I-... I couldn't... I couldn't help it." Leonard wheezed out as his medication began to take affect and settle him down.

Amy turned away from the short man before looking down at her hands; her fists tightened and closed almost as hard as a cage fighter she had many dreams about. But, this time, she wasn't dreaming about procreating with a certain cage fighter but, she felt her anger and hurt and all of her emotions well up inside of her.

She spun around and slapped Leonard straight across the face. The loud _smack_ reverberated down the hall and and down the stairwell where Sheldon, Raj and Howard stood and watched the very vivid scene unfold.

All three men gasped in disbelief before Amy began crying and ran back into Penny's apartment, their attention now turned to Leonard who only stood at the door with his hand covering his burning and stinging cheek.

Sheldon walked up the stairs first with the Catwoman comic in his hand and looked at his roommate and best friend. He turned to face the apartment 4B and with a sigh Leonard, Raj nor Howard had ever heard before, Sheldon lifted his arm up and wrapped it around Leonard, pulling the short man into his chest.

The hug hadn't lasted more than seven seconds but, to the four friends and scientists, that hug was worth more than gold and the entire collection of all of their comics and trinkets.

…

Alex stood with her back to Sheldon as she filed the huge stack of papers that was requested of her. Alex didn't mind the mediocre work but, it was the lack of communication between her and Sheldon that was making her nervous, considering the drastic story she heard about the other night.

She sighed with discontent when she had remembered she and Leonard would sneak out her apartment building early in the morning so that he could drive home and take a shower. She remembered all those times he called her with that horrible, sad tone in his voice that would make her heart break.

It never got physical until the late fall when Penny had began school and Leonard felt that she was cheating on him with on of her classmates. It was then that he rushed over to her apartment and ran right into her arms.

Her initial reaction – in her heart, of course – was to wrap her arms around him and give him a night that would make him forget all about his worries about Penny. But, it turned out to be the both of them laying in her bed; Leonard's head on her stomach as she stroked his brown hair out of his tear-stained face.

"Alex."

She woke up from her day dreams and spun around to see Sheldon look at her with an eyebrow raised in her direction.

"Yes, Dr. Cooper?" Alex walked over to his desk and held her hands together, waiting for the OCD-stricken doctor to give her another task.

"I'm not sure if you heard but, my _girlfriend_ slapped your fiancee' or, husband-to-be. Now, I don't want to bring up any kind of scenarios about the situation but, do you understand that there has been a sense of tension between our collective group of friends?" Sheldon stood up and walked around his desk, sitting on the edge as Alex backed off and gave him a solid nod.

"Yes, Dr. Cooper. I feel as if the engagement between Leonard and myself has been breaking your friendship with Penny apart."

"Oh, I don't really care about that Nebraskan know-it-all." Sheldon waved off her answer and looked away from her and at the dark blue carpet in his office.

"Dr. Cooper, I'm trying hard to understand what you're trying to get across and, if I might add, I'm quite concerned about the female friends that have been in your circle for quite some time."

"As you should be! I don't want my friends for whom I've worked so hard to even get to be around them enough to up and leave just because you and Leonard cannot keep your hands off each other."

"Dr. Cooper, I'd wish for you to stop talking of mine and Dr. Hofstadter's relationship outside of work, if you don't mind."

Sheldon looked at Alex and sighed before shaking his head. "Alex, you're hurting my friends and I don't like that. Not at all, not one bit."

Sheldon stood and walked around to his side of the large desk and opened the drawer on the right. He pulled out a thick envelope and looked at the detailed handwritten words before looking up at Alex. "Alex, I believe it is best that you and I no longer work together."

Sheldon extended his arm out and held the envelope for her to take. Alex only looked at the fine paper and the black cursive ink that was on the front of the letter.

"Dr. Cooper, I-"

Sheldon held his hand up and watched as Alex took the envelope and read the front: Miss Alex Jensen.

"Alex, I've already let President Siebert that this would be your last day. I've written an extensive letter of recommendation for you so that no job will be a fight for you." Sheldon walked and sat down in his chair, his eyes on his laptop as Alex continued looking at the thick letter in her hands.

"Dr. Coop-"

"It's Sheldon, now. Have a good day, Alex."

…

"MA! Where are my car keys?!" Howard screamed in the Jewish-contemporary styled home as Bernadette stood at the door with her purse in her hands and her foot tapping in a rhythm to a new song that had come on the radio a few weeks ago.

"They're on the counter!" The older fat woman shouted from the kitchen, no doubt preparing herself a snack.

The sound of keys jingling in the kitchen and the small footsteps that followed meant Howard had gotten the beloved keys and Bernadette was already out the door.

"I'll see you later, Ma!" Howard shouted before slowly closing the door, waiting for his mother's reply. "Who am I kidding? I can hear her down the street." Howard closed the door all the way and, without skipping a beat, Ms. Wolowitz ran – or what she called running – to the front door and opened it again.

"You forgot your Batman panties here last time you and little Bernadette spent the night! Do you want me to keep them here for you for the next time?!" Ms. Wolowitz shouted outside, the Martinez family next door to the Wolowitz household were carrying in their groceries and looked over to the short man shaking with unrivaled anger in the driveway next to the gray Kia Soul.

Bernadette had already gotten into the car; her brain was throbbing as she tried rubbing her temples to make it feel better. "I bet Amy will have some good drugs at her house." Bernadette whispered as she opened her eyes to see Howard spin around and begin to wave his arms in the air.

"Mother! Stop embarrassing yourself! Go back inside before someone calls the cops on you for having a HIPPO OUTSIDE OF THE ZOO!" Howard shouted before walking to the drivers side and, jumping in, he turned the car on and zipped out of the driveway and down the small cul-de-sac and onto the main street of the neighborhood.

"So, how's my little sugar plum doing?" Howard smiled at Bernadette as she continued on rubbing her temples to make herself feel better. Howard's hand squeezed her knee a bit and she looked at him with her big blue eyes.

"Can we stop by Amy's and then the liquor store right quick?"

"Sure, hon. Whatever for?"

"I'm going to need something to cure this headache you and your mother have given me."

…

Alex walked into the office on the fourth floor of the Arms building of Caltech. California Boulevard wasn't as busy as she thought it would be but, Sheldon's window had faced the courtyard and not the busy street most students and faculty traveled down to get into the parking lots that were packed by at least seven in the morning.

Alex looked for one particular office that President Siebert said Dr. Cooper wanted her to transfer to and that she would make an excellent assistant. Her heart raced as she stopped in front of office 408J; the name tag for the corresponding host of the office was gone and Alex sucked in a deep breath before knocking three times and opening the door.

"Hello?"

"Well, well, well... What have we here? What a wovewy wady. You must be my new assistant." The black haired man who wore an out-dated 90's flannel sweater shirt stood up and stuck out his hand. "I'm Barwy Kwipke."

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**A/N: Lmao! I love Barry Kripke! He's probably one of my favorite minor characters! Review and tell me how you liked it or hated it!  
-Laania**


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